The online diary of Caroline Westbrook and her forthcoming marriage on September 6 1998 to Leslie Bunder.Monday March 2 - Friday March 6
My parents left for Melbourne this week, and it's my turn the weekendafter next. But before I go, more things need to be sorted. For example, weneed to send out the invitations fairly early on, so that people can decidewhether they're going to fly out/take time off work etc. So we'll probablychoose a design at the weekend. Also Leslie and I are toying with the idea ofgoing back to the States in May to finalise a few things. There are somefairly reasonable airfares at that time, so it may happen.
Saturday March 7/Sunday March 8
Well, my chairs finally arrived - at 6.53 in the morning. Having beenassured by the store they would be arriving between nine and 12 on Saturday. So that was pleasing.
On a more successful note, Stan and Phyllis Conway -friends of my parents from Staines, where we used to live, who happen tospecialise in printing wedding invitations - came round to see us on Sunday afternoon, wielding a whole portfolio of designs with them. After muchdeliberation, we eventually settled on a kind of cream marble background, with embossed green lettering. Which we like because it looks celebratory enough and yet kind of modern at the same time. We will be sending them out mid-April. Leslie is also exploring the possibility of us all staying at the RooseveltHotel, which is New York's biggest and apparently has just been renovated. The room rates are very reasonable, for New York.
Monday March 8 - Thursday March 12
Finally got around to ordering the bridesmaid's dresses, which will takearound 12 weeks to arrive, so we should have those by the beginning ofJuly.
The rest of the week was taken up with preparing for my marathon spot ofglobe-trotting. I leave Saturday night, flying Virgin Atlantic as faras Hong Kong and then changing on to the local airline, Ansett, for the secondleg of the journey. I arrive in Melbourne at about 10.20 am Monday Mondaymorning local time, which'll be about midnight Sunday over here. Jet lag? Me?
I'll be so busy playing with all Virgin Atlantic's splendid amenities I won'thave time for any of that! It's likely we'll be flying Virgin to New Yorkwhen we go for the wedding - in terms of entertainment and quality of servicethey really are better than the competitors.
Friday March 13
Leslie and his mother have gone to Madrid for the weekend. He won sometickets in an Internet auction, and went very early this morning by Lufthansa,via Munich. (It was an auction of Lufthansa tickets). I desperately want togo to Spain, so it's a pity it had to be this weekend, but he says it's verynice there and it would really take a week to explore the whole place asit's so big. So I daresay the chance will come. Have packed my case and amready for the off.
Saturday March 14
I am officially off to a land Down Under. I left for the airport atabout 5.30 pm for my 8.30 pm flight, only to discover that I would have to change planes in Sydney for Melbourne - just what I really want to do after having flown for the best part of 24 hours. Anyway, my luggage was checked through all the way to Sydney which was useful, and the flight itself was fine, although my TV screen didn't work.
This however turned out to be a good thing as I ended up being moved to a nice empty row which allowed me to sleep comfortably for the majority of the time in the air.
Sunday March 15
And so to Hong Kong, which takes the breath away the moment you stepout of the plane - this may have something to do with the abundance ofskyscrapers and neon signs, or perhaps just the thick pollution and humidity which dominates the skyline. Pity I only got as far as the airport - I'd loveto see more of the place.
Had a terrible time convincing the airline staff atHK that I only had one bag (even though I had been given two receipts from it)- I ended up screaming at the people in charge in a way you can onlypossibly accomplish when you've been flying for 14 hours. The flight to Sydney,on local service Ansett Airlines, was fine, even if the food wasn't up tomuch.It was on arrival that I had my first experience of the laid-back Aussieculture when my bag took half an hour to appear on the carousel. Whichis a pity, as I had given it up as lost and was looking forward to arguingwith the ground staff in a way which can only be accomplished when you've been flying for 24 hours.
Monday March 16
Finally! I feel as though I've been flying for a week. My parents andbrother were waiting to pick me up at Melbourne, undeterred by my little joke atSydney (I called them and told them I'd flown into Sydney by mistake andthey'd have to come and pick me up there; they didn't fall for it).Melbourne is an extremely pleasant, elegant town, while Australia itself combines all the best bits of the UK and the US in one country.
I am sharing a mini-apartment with my parents, which comprises two bedrooms, bathroom with spa, fully equipped kitchen and lounge. Went over to the bride-to-be, Melissa's, mum's house, where she lives with my brother and her mum. It's amarvellous place, full of expensive rugs and paintings, plus the largest cat Ihave ever seen. There are panthers at Melbourne Zoo smaller than that animal.
Tuesday March 17
Acclimatised myself with my new surroundings, went to Melbourne Centralshopping mall, the War Memorial and the gardens etc., and then stoppedoff for lunch at Planet Hollywood, the only branch ever where my VIP memberscard gets me a 10 per cent discount. Very satisfying.
Dropped in, also, on the Melbourne Casino, which is nowhere near as much fun as playing in Las Vegas, since the slot machines only take 5 cents per game, and as anybody living in Australia will tell you, the 5 cent piece is pretty much worthless.
I am having a great deal of fun phoning Leslie and pretending to befrom the future (as Australia is eleven hours ahead of the UK, technically I am).
Wednesday March 18
The big outing. We went to Philip Island for the day, a small resortjust outside Melbourne which is the country's biggest tourist attraction,because it not only boasts a koala sanctuary where you can actually view theanimals in their natural habitat (i.e up a tree), but because of its famousbeach, which plays host to thousands of penguins heading back to their homesat dusk.
Anyway, having eventually found the place (after driving literallyhundreds of kilometres in the wrong direction), we arrived and headed straight for the koalas, which were fabulous but to be honest don't do a whole lot,except sit up trees eating eucalyptus leaves and sleeping. Apparently they snooze for about 21 hours a day, but we must have arrived at meal time as they all started to wake up and do cute things like munch on leaves or run upbranches.
Got some very cool photos. The penguins, to be honest, were a bit of adisappointment. Despite suggestions otherwise from assorted familymembers, I could really see nothing exciting in what amounted to about four groups of six penguins trundling up the beach. Had four hundred penguinssimultaneously risen and walked from the sea, now that would have been worth seeing.
But I really wasn't all that enthralled. The island, on the other hand, wasdelightful.
Thursday March 19
Bit of a relaxing day after yesterday's excursions, not too much toreport.
Went off and did some shopping (some of the prices here are fantastic),then took a tram out to St. Kilda Beach and went for a dip in the sea (OK, Ipaddled, but it was still contact with sea water). Lovely place. Wentto a restaurant in Little Italy with my family in the evening, and it washere that I encountered the greatest example of Australian service -unaccountably slow, yet somehow you don't seem to care.
If I'd gone to that same restaurant in London and had to wait that same half hour for my food, I would have been automatically assuming something was very wrong, yet here it's quite natural for people to take their time. And when it did arrive, the food wasgorgeous.I waddled back to the hotel for an early night. I love this country.
Friday March 20
Day before the wedding, so no mad excursions today. Went round toMelissa's in the evening for some serious girlie pampering, nail painting etc. Hadto get a good night's sleep as the big day is tomorrow.
Saturday March 21
Bundled into the hairdresser's first thing this morning in preparationfor this evening's frivolities. I sat there patiently while Steve, mydesignated stylist, painstakingly took two and a half hours to brush my hair into aslightly tidier style and blow-dry it. Couldn't believe how long ittook.
Finally managed to get some jewellery to go with my dress, which islemon coloured, long and very floaty.
The do was held at the Windsor Hotel, one of Melbourne's poshest, andpost ceremony we all trooped into their nicest suite for dinner. The weddingcake was the biggest attention grabber of the night, done as it was in blueand green colours, gold spray paint and garnished with red sugar roses and acouple of gold cherubs. Work of art, I'm saying, it was almost a shameto cut it.
Being best man, Ian had to make a speech, which he did very well,using old certificates from Hugh's childhood as illustrative materials. I hadnever known, for example, that Hugh had taken part in a sponsored threelegged disco dance in 1974 when he was seven. And his achievements at judo had escaped me.
It was a great speech, compounded by telegrams from folks who couldn'tbe there, including one from Leslie and Lorraine. A great time was had byall.
Sunday March 22
Post-wedding exhaustion and the fact that the temperature rocketed to 37degrees today made it impossible to do much, although the grand presentopening ceremony at Hugh and Melissa's was worth going to. They had somefantastic gifts, which left me with a few ideas of my own about ourwedding.
A spray painted gold cake for example, or a present list consistingentirely of smart china and neat teapots. Except we'll probably go for something a tad more traditional.
Monday March 23
Much cooler, thank goodness. Began our day with a trip to fabulousbreakfast place Gluttony. The food, once again, took half an hour to arrive, butit was worth it. Spent the afternoon at Prahan, which is the upscale shoppingarea of Melbourne - like so many other areas, totally different from the restof the city once again.
I have to get up at 6 am tomorrow to go to the airport, so last minutepartying is obviously a no-no
Tuesday March 24
Spent the day flying. Once again it was lengthy and perfectlycomfortable, and once again my screen on the flight from Hong Kong failed to work and I had to move seats. I had a five hour wait at Hong Kong airport to change planes - not something I would recommend to anyone.
Wednesday March 25
Arrived home at around 5.15 in the morning (I gain hours coming backfrom Australia) and spent the day in, understandably, a state of nearslumber. Too tired to think about weddings or even diary writing.
Thursday March 26
Went back to work today despite being still exhausted.
Friday March 27
I am beginning to feel a little more human. The good news is that thewedding invitations are well on the way and should be with us before Pesach intwo weeks time. Which means they can be sent out by the end of April.Perfect timing.
Saturday March 28
Still resting. Leslie and I saw each other for the first time since hewent to Madrid and I went to Australia. He returned with some gorgeous goldjewellery from Toledo - a Star Of David necklace and matching bracelet. They will make their debut at the first Seder night which we are holding at our flatin a couple of weeks. He got a boomerang and assorted other Anitpodeangoodies from me.
Went to book our tickets to New York once again! This time we are goingout over the Memorial Day weekend, May 23, and staying for a week, to sortout the band, video, photographer, flowers and (hopefully) stand-up comedian.
We managed to get it all sorted fairly quickly. We have booked into theIntercontinental for the first three nights, as Leslie has managed towangle a free night through being a member of The Six Continents Club (specialdeals available at Intercontinental hotels when you join). We'll have to findsomewhere else for the last three nights, but that shouldn't be aproblem.
Saw our friend Samara tonight, who, like so many others, has already booked her flight to New York for the wedding.
Sunday March 29
Again, spent the day finally recovering from my overseas jaunt. I neverknew it would take this long!
Monday March 30
My mother has organised for the caterers to send some information overto us regarding the best bands, photographers and florists to use for thewedding, which will certainly come in handy.
Tuesday March 31
I am in the process of contacting Fade To Black, a fantastic on-linesatirical magazine, to see if they can give us any pointers as to where we can goabout finding a stand-up comedian for the wedding. I suspect Mel Brooks is alittle busy and may be out of our price range. We're basically looking forsomeone who'll do maybe an hour or so, who won't get paid too much for doing itbut will get a fee and a very nice dinner into the bargain. You can't sayfairer than that, really.
